Method of separating borates from their gangue.



H. W. FAULKNER.

METHOD OF SEPARATING BORATES FROM THEIR GANGUE. APPLICATION FILEDJUNE26. 1912.

1,269, 1 70, Patented June 11, 1918.

' ED sTATEs PATENT ornion.

HERBERT W. FAULKNEB, 0F RYAN, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO PACIFIC COASTBORAX COMPANY, OF RENO, NEVADA, A CORPORATION OF NEVADA.

METHOD OF SEPARATING BORATES FROM THEIR GANGUE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 11, 1918.

Application filed June 26, 1917. Serial No. 177,145.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT W. FAULK- mm, a subject of the King of theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, residing at Ryan, in thecounty of Inyo and State of California, have invented a new and usefulMethod of Separating Borates from Their Gangue, of which the followingis a specification.

My invention relates to the art of separating borates from boratebearing material. There exist a great many deposits of borate bearinground which are considered more or less vzfiueless due to the diificultyof separating the borate from the accompanying minerals. Such forexample are many of the deposits of colemanite and ulexite found inCalifornia. There also exist in existing borate workings many largedumps which contain large uantities of borate which it has not been oundpracticable u' to the present time to recover. The princlpal diflicultyfound in working such deposits and dumps is due to the fact that theborate as found in such locations has a specific gravity very close tothat of its accompanying gangue.

The principal object of my invention is to utilize such borate depositsand to recover from such dumps the greater portion of the boratecontents. This I accomplish by the apparatus shown diagrammatically onthe inclosed drawing and by the process hereinafter described.

In this drawing, I provide a roaster 11' accompanying materials. Theroasted ma terials are then passed into a crusher 12 and are then passedto a jig 13. The term jig as used herein includes all sorts ofoscillating tables and all sorts of other devices which are suited toseparate heavy particles from lighter ones. Many commercial forms of jis and concentrators are available. On the jlg 13 the light dehydratedparticles of borates are separated from the heavy particles ofaccompanying gangue, the separated borates being collected and furthertreated if desired to produce a commercial product.

My invention consists in first dehydrating the borates to lighten them,and in then crushing and separating the borates from the gangue by anysort of a jig.

- I claim as my invention l. A process of recovering borates from theirgangue which comprises subjecting a mixture of borate and gangue to aheat sufficient to dehydrate the borate to such a degree that itsspecific gravity is altered and thereafter subjecting the mixture toseparation according to the specific gravity of the components.

2. A process as in claim 1 in which the mixture is crushed afterdehydration and before separation.

3. A process as in claim 1 in which the separation is effected by ajigging operation dependent on the specific gravities of the components.

4. A process as in claim 2 in which the separation is effected by ajigging operation dependent on the specific gravities of the components.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand at Ryan, California,this 18th day of June, 1917.

HERBERT W. FAULKNER.

